Modern botanical gardens originated in Europe and have been developed for more than 400 years. Today, there are more than 2,000 botanical gardens in hundreds of countries around the world.
Excellent botanical gardens not only have gorgeous greenhouses, rich plants, and a long history, allowing people to enjoy beautiful flowers all year round, but also take on the responsibility of protecting plant diversity and becoming a shelter for rare plants.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Kew is one of the most famous botanical gardens in the world, the largest botanical garden in the world, and the center of plant taxonomy research. It is named after Kew Town on the Thames in southwest London.
The history of Kew can be traced back to 1759. It was originally a private royal botanic garden with an area of only 3.5 hectares. After more than 200 years of development, it has been expanded into a large-scale royal botanic garden covering an area of about 120 hectares. There are 26 professional gardens and 6 greenhouses in the garden, as well as a specimen museum, library and millennium seed bank. It houses 1/8 of the world’s known plants, nearly 50,000 species of plants. The collection is the richest in the world, and it is not an exaggeration to call it the world’s botanical museum.
The Palm House at Kew Gardens is one of the most famous greenhouses in the world and is also a landmark building of Kew Gardens. This large greenhouse, built in 1848, collects a variety of tropical rainforest plants, many of which are endangered or even extinct in the wild.
In addition, Kew Gardens was designed by many famous artists and is also of great significance to the history of Western architecture. In 2003, Kew Gardens was recognized as a World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO for its rich plant species, magnificent scale and long history.
Kirstenbush National Botanical Garden, South Africa
Korstenbush National Botanical Garden is famous for its beautiful scenery and a wide variety of plants. It is also the first botanical garden in the world to be included in the World Natural Heritage List. It was evaluated by Mandela, the first president of South Africa, as “a gift from the South African people to the earth.”
The botanical garden is located on the eastern foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town. It was built in 1913 and was originally the private property of Cecil John Rhodes, a British-South African businessman. In 1902, Rhodes died of illness. According to his will, the botanical garden became a national park.
The botanical garden covers a relatively small area of about 528 hectares, of which 36 hectares are artificial botanical gardens and the rest are nature reserves. The garden has a rich variety of plants, most of which are collected from South Africa, and many plants are rare or endangered species. Visitors can not only see the unique plants growing in the lowlands of the Western Cape Province of South Africa, but also the dryland plants growing in southern Africa and the cold-resistant plants growing on the cliffs of high mountains. The most popular plant in the garden is the king protea, the national flower of South Africa.
The botanical garden has a pedestrian bridge 12 meters above the ground and 130 meters long, which is called the “African tree snake” or “canopy corridor”. Walking on it, in addition to experiencing the wonderful feeling of being in the sky, you can also enjoy the unique ecological scene of the botanical garden.
Padua Botanical Garden, Italy
Padua Botanical Garden, Italy is the first botanical garden in the world to become a world cultural heritage and one of the oldest botanical gardens in the Western world.
The botanical garden covers an area of about 22,000 square meters and is famous for its special collections and historical designs. At present, the garden is still used as a scientific research base and is still open.
The Botanical Garden of Padua is affiliated to the University of Padua. The Botanical Garden was built in 1545 at the request of Francesco Bonafode, who was then the chairman of the University’s Pharmacy Department, as a practice base for teaching medicinal plants. It was originally a reference center for herbal specimens, specializing in the collection, cultivation and classification of medicinal plants.
The design of the Botanical Garden of Padua is quite distinctive. Four regular square planting pools are enclosed beside the cross-shaped paths, which is consistent with the pattern of the medieval inner courtyard garden and has been preserved to this day.
Singapore Botanic Gardens
The Singapore Botanic Gardens is Singapore’s first World Cultural Heritage and the first tropical botanical garden in the world to receive this honor. The Singapore Botanic Gardens was founded in 1859 and covers an area of 74 hectares. It was once a British tropical colonial botanical garden and a Southeast Asian plant research center. The botanical garden is famous for its research and collection of tropical plants and horticultural flowers. It has more than 20,000 subtropical and tropical exotic flowers and precious trees. The introduction and promotion of rubber and orchid breeding that began here have profoundly changed the socio-economic structure of Singapore, the Malay Peninsula and Southeast Asia.
Orchids are the symbol of Singapore. There is a special orchid garden in the botanical garden, which is the largest in the world. There are more than 3,000 varieties and more than 60,000 rare orchids, including the well-known Singapore national flower – Vanda Joaquim, and many orchid varieties named after international celebrities.
Missouri Botanical Garden, USA
The Missouri Botanical Garden is located in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, on the Mississippi River. It is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the United States. It was originally the private garden of British businessman Henry Shaw. In 1859, the owner built it into an education, scientific research and horticultural exhibition center for people to visit. In memory of its founder, it is also called Xiao Garden. The entire botanical garden is divided into several independent theme areas, including plant specialty gardens, botanical gardens that reflect the culture of other countries or celebrities, including the Chinese Garden, Japanese Garden, Moore Garden, etc. Among them, the Chinese Garden was built in 1979 to commemorate the sister city relationship between Nanjing and St. Louis. It uses Wenyuan as a model and has a Jiangnan style in design.
The Missouri Botanical Garden’s Exhibition Conservatory opened on October 1, 1960 and is one of the 100 major architectural achievements in the United States. The greenhouse is designed with a tropical rainforest theme and houses more than 1,100 species of plants.
It houses about 5 million specimens, the earliest of which dates back to 1750, making it one of the richest collections of specimens in any research institution in the world. The botanical garden is now a National Historic Landmark in the United States.
Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, Brazil
The Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden is the earliest planned botanical garden in Brazil. It was founded in 1808 by the Portuguese colonial regent Joao VI to cultivate spice crops.
The garden is located at the foot of Corcovado Mountain in the southern district of Rio de Janeiro, covering an area of about 140 hectares and has more than 8,000 species of plants, many of which are rare species.
The Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden is not only an important natural treasure of Brazil, but also one of the most important plant research centers in the world. In 1992, it was designated as a biological reserve by UNESCO.
In the outdoor display area of the garden, there are many woody plants that are over 100 years old. They are not only tall and magnificent, but also densely covered with mosses, ferns, pineapples and other plants from bottom to top on the trunks, which is rarely seen in other botanical gardens.
Because there are still many cultural relics and monuments preserved in the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, it is also a key cultural relic unit in Brazil.
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Australia
The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne is one of the best botanical gardens in Australia and one of the best designed botanical gardens in the world, stretching over about 40 hectares.
It is designed with 19th century garden art as the theme, with a large number of rare plants and native Australian plants. Since Melbourne has no frost in winter, almost all types of trees in tropical, subtropical and temperate zones can grow in the garden, which can be called a botanical garden.